Spiritual Direction is a compilation of religious leader Henri Nouwen's unpublished writings about finding one's spiritual bearings. This book is the first I've read of Henri Nouwen. I will look for more.

Reflections on some of life's most important questions, lovingly and beautifully illustrated with Nouwen's own experience. This is not a book on the process of spiritual direction, per se, but on its content—a sampling of what Nouwen might share with you if he were walking with you, the reader, in spiritual direction. Questions and exercises at the end of each chapter personalize the text and move a small step closer to the interactive experience of spiritual direction.

This is also not a book by Nouwen, per se, but a patchwork pulled from his writings by a couple of his students to reflect Nouwen's teaching on spiritual direction. As such, the work feels a little uneven, at times, but is definitely worth reading, reflecting on, and returning to.

Insightful and practical. The editors suggest reading this book twice: once all the way through and then a second time, slowly and completing the exercises of each chapter over a period of a week. I intend to read it a second time but am not sure when.

Highly recommend this one. Put together by two of Nouwen's longtime students after his death, this book is divided into three parts: Look Within to the Heart, Look to God in the Book, and Look to Others in Community. I especially appreciated what he had to say about the practice of spiritual writing:

"Many think that writing means writing down ideas, insights, or visions. They are of the opinion that they must first have something to say before they can put it on paper. For them, writing is little more than recording preexistent thoughts. But with this approach, true writing is impossible.

Writing is a process in which we discover what lives in us. The writing itself reveals to us what is alive in us. The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write.

To write is to embark on a journey of which we do not know the final destination. Thus, writing requires a great act of trust. We have to say to ourselves: 'I do not yet know what I carry in my heart, but I trust it will emerge as I write.'

Writing is like giving away the few loaves and fishes we have, trusting that they will multiply in the giving. Once we dare to 'give away' on paper the few thoughts that come to us, we start discovering how much is hidden underneath these thoughts and thus we gradually come in touch with our own riches and resources."

This book is a posthumous distillation of Henri Nouwen's spiritual direction academic course by two of his students at Yale Divinity School. It includes unpublished lecture notes, journal articles, sermons and material from Nouwen's other books. Editors Christensen and Laird do a fine job of highlighting a pilgrim's journey of Christian identity, hearing God's word through scripture study and contemplation, finding God's purpose for life, and service to others. I am drawn to and most impacted by Nouwen's interplay of solitude and community.

If I could, I would give this book 10, or even more, stars.

A little different from the other works I’ve read but so thoughtful and very practical and edifying. I’ve been curious about spiritual directors for a while, now even more so.

I have lots of Nouwen books, as he is often quoted by authors I read, such as Brennan Manning and Phil Yancey. I find most of my books, via books. This is the first Nouwen book Ive read, but I didnt originally realise it was written posthumously, and he didnt actually write it. It was written via a collection of his notes, sermons, diary entries etc. As such, its a bit all over the place, however, while it was not the best structure, it certainly wet my appetite (with nuggets of revelation and truth) to read more.

Henry left a prominant career at Yale and eventually found himself ministering to a group of severely mentally handicapped people. He has written a lot about a particular lad called Adam, who taught him a lot and changed his view of God. He would just sit with him, no communication:

"Adam silently spoke to me about God and Gods friendship in a concrete way. First, he taught me that being, is more important than doing. That God wants me to be with him, and not do all sorts of things to prove Im valuable."

"People had said; 'Henri, you're ok' but now, here with Adam I heard; 'I don't care what you do, as long as you will just be with me'. 

Henri learned and taught that there is a big difference between prayers and prayerfulness. The same as was discovered by Brother Lawrence hundreds of years before:

"The prayerfulness of the heart is deeper and ultimately more important than particular prayers which are said. Prayers are specific expressions of praise, thanksgiving, confession and petition, siupplecation and intercession. Prayerfulness however, is a matter of the heart. Mostly unspoken, that reveals itself in gentleness, compassion, peacefulness and the other fruits of the spirit."

This makes possible praying without ceasing...

"This means to think, speak and act, in the presence of God. Although its important and indespensable to set apart time alone with God.  Prayer can only become unceasing prayer, when all our thoughts, beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful or joyful, can be thought and expressed in the presence of God.

Thus, converting our unceasing thinking to unceasing prayer, moves us from a self centred monologue, to a God centred dialogue. This requires that we turn all our thoughts into conversation."

I also got a lot out of his discussion on the discipline of spiritual displacement, which must be voluntary. Henri left what he thought were his callings at Yale and then as a missionary in South America, when eventually he found his displacement in a nondescript home for special needs.

"The discipline of displacement calls us away from the comfortable oasis...... For Thomas Merton, it meant leaving the university and joining a monastery. For it meant leaving the monastery and becoming a reformer. For Boenhoffer it meant leaving the safety of the US and becoming a prisoner of the Nazis. For Martin Luther King Jnr, it meant leaving the ordinary and proper place of blacks and leading a movement."

What a great book...

4.75 ~ great, encouraging/challenging read

I'm slowly working through the list of Nouwen books I've received over the years only to learn that like half of them are actually compilations and works completed after his death. This one is certainly well put together but winds up covering the same ground as much of what I've already read. Of course, I really like what I already read! A big section of this book is built out of an expanded version of one of my favourite articles by Nouwen. But yeah, as wonderful as it is to be reminded of some of his insights, it's hard to place this as a particularly noteworthy collection.

Perhaps the most interesting aspects of this collection are those that are drawn from the end of Nouwen's life. I think one of the most relieving aspects of Nouwen's writing is his tenderness, the fact that despite his position in orthodoxy he still presents an image of faith that is, at its heart, loving and caring. Moreover, much of his work presents a deep pain and insecurity, a desire for intimacy he can't quite touch and a repeated need to assure himself of his own belovedness. I know it's been suggested before but I can't shake the idea of Nouwen as a closed gay man and how that transforms everything we know about him. His final recorded insights here are of someone at the edge of a revelation, coming into an "embodied spirituality" and realizing many of the assumptions he had of his faith may have been wrong. There is a tragedy there; I have to wonder what the writings of a fully affirming Nouwen would have been, a Nouwen who finally found the inner peace he was looking for, as his last thoughts suggest.

Nouwen lived and labored in contexts outside my faith tradition. But I benefit from his thoughtful and contemplative pursuit of a vocational, one’s life pursuit in response to Christ’s presence in our lives.

Great Wisdom